This invention relates to a cushion support apparatus for infants for providing support while the infant child is in a seated position, the support apparatus being fully adjustable to accommodate the infant child as he or she grows, the apparatus being adaptable to cooperate with a variety of different types of children's seating apparatus.
Small children, such as infants from a few months old to one to two years old cannot adequately support themselves conveniently in a seated position. This problem is aggravated with premature babies who are initially underweight. The problem manifests itself when the child is placed in a car seat, stroller, high chair, or other form of seating or carrier arrangement for infants. The infant's head will tilt or hang to the left or the right and find support in the shoulder or chest region when the infant falls asleep, which occurs frequently with young children. A further tendency is for the child to slide downwardly in the seat or carrier to an unnatural, posture-poor position. It is preferred that the infant be supported in the transportation mode, at an approximate 45.degree. angle or less. This is to prevent the young infant who has not developed muscle control from pitching forward. The straps or harnesses are normally utilized to further prevent this occurrence. An infant so positioned, particularly when being transported, will have the tendency to fall asleep and having insufficiently developed muscle control, will tend to have its head tilted to the side.
In these early formative stages of life, it is important that the child be supported correctly from an orthopedic standpoint in order to aid in proper growth and bone development so as to avoid or eliminate possible skeletal problems in later years. It is of particular importance to the infant and to the infant's parents that the child be supported in such a manner.
It is further recognized that infant children rely upon their parents for transportation in their early years. Small infants accompany their parents more and more frequently, not only in shopping, traveling and visiting situations, but small infants also require frequent visits to the physician to check on their development. As such, the small child is subjected to a variety of different transportation modes from car seats, strollers, baby seats, and baby carriers. It is therefore important that the parent have a convenient, light-weight and adaptable support apparatus which can easily be affixed to any one of the foregoing transportation modes for support of the infant child and which will be adaptable to the infant child and his or her growth stages during the early formative years of life.
The prior art has directed its attention to this problem in an attempt to offer a solution. The prior art suffers from its inability to adapt to different modes of transportation, its awkwardness or cumbersomeness and its inability to accommodate the growing child. U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,341 is a self-contained car seat adaptable for only that purpose. U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,548 again provides for a safety seat which is cumbersome and not adaptable to different modes of transportation. U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,221 provides for a child's support wedge which does not address nor solve the problem of supporting an infant's tilting head. U.S. Pat. No. 4,383,713 provides for an orthopedic support apparatus, but again, there is no provision for adapting the apparatus for growing infants.
Despite the aforesaid prior art, it has been recognized as recently as 1991 that there is no adequate device available for positioning small infants in car seats and baby seats and the like. These problems were addressed in publications ranging from Pediatrics, Volume 87, No. 1, January 1991; Baby Talk, November 1990; American Baby, February 1991 and Healthy Kids, Winter of 1991. All of the aforesaid articles recognize the problem and the need. The solutions suggested are the use of rolled diapers or towels positioned adjacent the infant's body in order to provide support. Applicant's cushion support provides a solution to the problem and is secured directly to the car seat or baby seat and cooperates with the car seat or baby seat in maintaining the infant in the proper position.
The novelty of the present invention lies in the fact that the apparatus is lightweight, portable, and can be stored in a diaper bag, and is adaptable to different modes of transportation and adaptable to different size children and can be modified as the child grows to accommodate his or her growing proportions.